OIRAC Report, May 98 _____________________ Gemini ______ The most recent Gemini newsletter is the same one reported in the Nov 97 OIRAC report (http://www.gemini.edu/newsletter/dec_97/status_html). Updates presented at the April Gemini Science Committee meeting (Simon Morris and Jean-Rene Roy Canadian members) are: 1. The MK primary has 16nm rms errors measured, the CP primary is being polished, and is expected to have a significantly better surface. 2. After repeated failures, attempts to make a SiC secondary have been stopped. At the moment the only secondaries planned for will be zerodur. The impact on tip-tilt performance is small, the impact on AO performance has not been evaluated yet. 3. First light at MK is still on schedule for Dec 98. The UH Quirc camera will be used. NIRI is due for delivery in the spring of 99, followed by NIRS and GMOS in early 2000. The MK AO system is due to be delivered in late 2000. 4. CP first light is still on schedule for June 2000. 5. subject to final board approval, Australia has now joined the Gemini partnership. The money from this greatly speeds up the ongoing instrumentation plan, for example moving plans for delivery of IR MOS spectrographs up by 3 years. 6. The GSC endorsed the case made by Jean-Rene Roy and David Schade for a Gemini Science Archive (something previously missing from Gemini planning). 6. Plans for Gemini support in Canada are still under discussion, but a need for around 4 full time equivalents has been demonstrated. NRC is looking into ways of providing these people in consultation with Jean-Rene Roy. CFHT _____ The November 97 SAC report can be found at http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/sci-activities/sac/sac_nov97.html. The agenda for the CFHT Users meeting to be held in conjunction with the CASCA meeting in Quebec can be found at http://astrosun.phy.ulaval.ca/astro/cfh/cfhtpgm.html. Some instrumental highlights are: 1. The OASIS IFU spectrograph has been used extensively now both at f/8 and also in combination with AOB at f/20. 2. The 1024**2 KIR camera for AOB also is working well, delivering a 33 arcsec field of view - a substantial improvement over the previous 9 arcseconds. 3. An autofocus has been implemented on LAMA, greatly reducing astronomer wear and tear at 14,000 ft. 4. The CFHT 12K is still not available, but should be appearing during the next semester. Two committees are now discussing the future of CFHT (see below). CADC ____ STIS and NICMOS recalibration has been implemented, and Early Release Observations (and parallel observations) are now available. NGST ____ Canadian involvement in NGST is being ably led by Simon Lilly. OIRAC (in the form of the Chair) is being represented on the Canadian NGST committee, although this project obviously falls more under the remit of the JSSA. A Plethora of Studies _____________________ Studies or open questions on many topics impacting on or part of the remit of this committee are being pursued at the moment. The decision about a Canadian future radio astronomy project seems to be re-opened given the interest in sub-mm arrays and the possible delays ion the square km array. There are two committees studying CFHT - both it's current operations, and it's long term future. The Canadian plans for Gemini are always being re-evaluated by both NRC and the Canadian Gemini Science Steering Committee. JSSA is working with CSA to try to get Canadian involvement in three large space missions - NGST, First/Plank and space VLBI. Also the NSERC reallocation process led to a recent evaluation of progress in Canadian astronomy. It seems that some coordination of all these efforts would be a good idea. Although OIRAC by itself (even if reconstituted as a sizeable group) could not attempt to do this, OIRAC clearly should be involved in any such coordination effort. I hope that some such coordination effort is initiated by CASCA, and think that such an effort might well be just the sort of thing that would justify refilling the ranks of OIRAC. OIRAC Membership ________________ Current membership: Name Affiliation Email End of OIRAC Term S. Morris(Chair) DAO/NRC simon@dao.nrc.ca 1997 J. Hutchings DAO/NRC hutchings@dao.nrc.ca 1999 R. Doyon U de Montreal doyon@ere.umontreal.ca 1999 B. Oke, D. Schade and M. West rotate off after the 1998 CASCA meeting. As a reminder, the current plan for OIRAC membership is repeated below. (i) The OIRAC chair remains responsible for writing the 6 monthly reports to CASCA. The chair should ideally be someone with easy access to information about the CFHT, Gemini and also should keep informed about the relevant activities of the JSSA. The term of the OIRAC chair could probably be extended if desired, as by removing the need to choose new members and harass present ones (see below), the Chair's responsibilities would be more than halved. (ii) The current members who are not chair should be allowed to rotate off the committee in the usual way, but without replacement. This should continue until the active OIRAC members are reduced to just the chair. (iii) When the CASCA board, or the OIRAC chair decide there is a question requiring a representative committee, then a full OIRAC should be reformed. Thanks to electronic communication, this can be done very quickly. In fact this will also allow the OIRAC membership to be tuned to best match the question being addressed. The membership of the OIRAC thus formed would have to be agreed by the OIRAC chair and the CASCA president (or whomever the CASCA board wishes to nominate as responsible for communicating with OIRAC). Currently Simon Morris remains as Chair. -- Simon L. Morris (NRC/HIA), Tel - (250)363-0062 Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, FAX - (250)363-0045 5071 W. Saanich Rd., Simon.Morris@hia.nrc.ca Victoria, B.C., CANADA V8X 4M6.